Teresa Burga (1935–2021) was born in Iquitos, Peru. A pioneer of Latin American Conceptualism, Burga made works that encompassed drawing, painting, sculpture, and conceptual structures that supported the display of analytical data and experimental methodologies.

Burga studied at the School of Art Catholic University of Peru in Lima and contributed significantly to the Peruvian avant-garde art scene at the time. In 1966, along with other forward-thinking artists in Lima, Burga formed part of the Arte Nuevo group, a collective of artists interested in advancing genres of Pop, Minimalism, Op Art, and happenings in Peru. Notably, the group only included two women artists––Burga and Gloria Gómez-Sánchez––indicative of the social barriers for women in the country in that moment, a subject that would influence Burga’s practice for decades. Prompted by a Fulbright scholarship, in 1968 Burga traveled to the United States and for two years studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she made works that questioned traditional artistic authorship, prioritizing conceptual prompts. Meant to be produced and replicated by anyone via highly-detailed schematic diagrams, her boldly-saturated Prismas sculptures, for example, embody both Pop and commercial aesthetics with colorful geometric forms. In other works, like Pictures with a Limited Time (1970) and Work That Disappears When the Spectator Tries to Approach It (1970), Burga invented immersive situations where spectators must activate the environment through the use of their own bodies.

In 1971, Burga returned to an authoritarian Peru, under the military rule of Juan Velasco Alvarado. Facing a repressive regime which did not favor conceptual art, she pursued a career in Peru’s General Customs Office, where she would remain an official for three decades, designing solutions to enhance administrative efficiency in digital information systems. Burga continued to make work that reflected the socio-political realities of the country: in particular, how standardized, regulated, and bureaucratic systems function as apparatuses for control and oppression––most saliently for women. Autorretrato. Estructura. Informe, 9.6.1972 (1972), for example, consists of a thorough portrait of Burga’s own body illustrated through medical reports, an audio simulation of her heartbeat, photographs, and various diagrams outlining biological data. Following a similar conceptual vein, in 1980 Burga developed Perfil de la muter Peruana (Profile of the Peruvian Woman) (1980–81), an ambitious large-scale research project and installation. For the project, in collaboration with sociologist Marie-France Cathelat, Burga interviewed 290 women in Lima and recorded statistical data about their height, weight, religious identities, and political affiliations, among other categories, and displayed the findings using conceptual visual representations like a mannequin, a jigsaw puzzle, and various drawings.